Federal Treasurer Wayne Swan has asserted that Australia will find ways to fill in the void of the impending $7 billion budget shortfall by May, vowing that he is ready to implement painful measures in order to reach the goal he had pledged earlier this year.

Swan had admitted over the weekend that government revenues took significant hits over the past few months as tax collection from individuals, corporations and the superannuation funds all registered slides.

He added that the retreats were both caused by internal and external forces, with much of the declines spurred by the deteriorating condition of key economies around the world, most notably the European debt crisis.

That concern alone, Swan said, pushed down the local market value, which plunged by at least 15 percent since May.

Also, Australia's tax revenues have seen dramatic dips over the past five years and the government is expected to absorb hits reaching as high as $130 billion by 2013.

"The substantial hit to revenues caused by global economic turbulence means we'll have to make some difficult decisions to find savings in the upcoming mid-year economic and fiscal outlook," Swan was reported by The Daily Telegraph as saying on Sunday.

Nonetheless, the Deputy Prime Minister issued assurance that the government will look into possibilities that would lead to considerable savings, thereby plugging the projected $7 billion deficit May next year.

"Just as it would be wrong to abandon our determination to return to surplus in 2012-13, it would also be counterproductive to take an axe to the budget in these uncertain times for the global economy," Swan stressed.

His assertions were backed by Finance Minister Penny Wong, who admitted that realising the budget surplus promised by 2013 would be a difficult task for the government considering the outside forces pressuring the local economy.

With Europe struggling to put its house in order, Wong admitted that "there is no doubt the current global economy has made it harder."